We might never fully know why Dennis Evans changed his mind late last week and asked to be released from his National Letter of Intent with the Gophers.
But it might not really matter given that the likely options lead to the same conclusion: the decision of Evans, a five-star recruit from California who offered genuine hope for the future, is just the latest piece of evidence to support the notion that rebuilding a struggling college program is harder than ever.
If it was simply that Evans surveyed the Gophers' season, a disaster at this point with just one Big Ten win, and decided he didn't want to be part of a rebuild? That's evidence of the difficulty of turning things around because usually a rebuild takes time and patience.
If he looked at the Gophers' lagging Name, Image and Likeness income potential — something he knew when he signed months ago — and decided he was leaving too much money on the table? NIL money tends to flow more freely at top programs, not rebuilding ones.
Perhaps it was some combination of that and other factors, as Chip Scoggins suggested on Tuesday's Daily Delivery podcast.
It's never been easier or more fashionable to change your mind and your situation if you're a college athlete.
Whereas transfers in the past were often motivated by playing time issues, new coaching regimes or the desire to be closer to home — and were often accompanied by sitting out a season of competition — now they might be triggered by something as simple as a good player wanting to win now instead of going through a rebuild. Or a player who is outperforming his or her prep pedigree might level up to a top program.
Even if you agree that players being able to improve their situations, whether financially or competitively, is a good thing (as I do), what's becoming clear is what is being left in the wake of the dual storm of NIL and the transfer portal that arrived a few years ago.
